Pirates score their bounty over Mariners in close match

The Pirates are the reigning baseball premiers in both grades after a successful season last year.

In A grade, the first innings proved very tight as both teams failed to score.

The Pirates seemed destined to score with a runner on third base and the powerful Brett Tait at the plate. As expected, Tait cracked the ball very firmly towards the gap between third base and shortstop.

Mariners young gun third baseman Ryan Bray swept in like a sea eagle devouring a fish, gathered the ball in one perfect swoop and fired the ball straight across the diamond to first baseman Kye Dures with Tait well short of first base.

The Pirates scored in the second innings through a walk and a safe hit. In the third innings they scored two more runs to take a three-run lead. The score remained the same throughout the fourth and fifth innings due mainly to the standard of pitching by the Pirates' Dave Boyton and the Mariners' Matt Lenton.

In the top of the sixth innings, Todd Reid and Brock Colley turned over a brilliant play when Colley fielded the ball and threw it to Reid who stepped on second base for the first out, then in the one motion Reid threw the ball to first base for the second out.

With two outs the Pirates were able to get two runners into scoring position. When the Pirates' batter hit the ball towards right fielder Nathan Ellul, the Mariners supporters' hearts were in their collective mouths, only to see the ball drop in two metres from Ellul.

The Mariners still had a chance of the rare right field to first base out, but as luck had it, the ball took a sharp turn to the left of Ellul allowing the Pirates to score two more runs.

The Mariners started their comeback with Kye Dures having a safe hit and then Ben Williams executing a perfect "hit and run" play. This, combined with a towering hit to leftfield and a solid contact by Matt Lindsay, saw the Mariners score three runs to bring the score to 5-3 with one innings to play.

The Mariners retired the Pirates for no runs but were unable to score in their final innings going down by two runs in a highly entertaining game.

Matt Lenton was voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) for his pitching, Lenton gave up only four earned runs over seven innings in a superb display of pitching. Ryan Bray continues to develop as a baseballer having a great game on third base and having two safe hits.

"This team is developing as a real force in this competition and with a little bit of improvement will really worry the top teams," a club spokesman said after the game.

In the other games, the Mariners Green team beat last year's premiers the Pirates 15-4 in a display of power hitting with Bob Boorer (3), Peter Kirkpatrick (3), Leigh I'Anson (2), Marty Dures (2) and Nick Maxwell all recording safe hits.

The MVP award went to Rob Boorer who pitched superbly giving up 0 earned runs over 4 innings and having a perfect batting display as well as batting in three runs. The display was rated as the best display of team baseball since the 2016 grand final by some very good judges. In a rare statistic every player scored at least one run.

The Mariners White team played the Spartans and although beaten 15-1 the team held out well for nearly an hour giving up only two runs and playing their best game so far. MVP Oliver Bolte was involved in two putouts and two assists as well as making his pitching debut late in the game. Bolte is improving every week and will develop into an excellent player with more experience.

This week, the Mariners will play the Giants for the Ron and Pam Dures Shield at 1:30pm at Blackbutt Park. Spectators are most welcome.